The Commercial Bar Association of Victoria Inc. A0120851O
Civil penalty proceedings—Building and Construction Industry Improvement Act 2005 (Cth) — submissions as to “appropriate” penalty — whether relevant — whether Barbaro v R (2014) 253 CLR 58 applies
The High Court has held that the Commonwealth’s participation in the detention of asylum seekers in Nauru was authorised by the Migration Act 1958 (Cth)
A person who brings charges, whether as a prosecutor or other accuser, has a conflict of interest in participating in a decision on matters consequential to those charges that may give rise to a reasonable apprehension of bias.
The High Court held that a statutory authority with separate legal personality was a trading corporation within the meaning of s 51(xx) of the Constitution, even though the Act that established the authority expressly provided that the authority “is not a body corporate”.
Case Note by Simona Gory. Civil forfeiture of asset proceedings may need to be stayed pending finalisation of the relevant criminal proceedings, at least in circumstances where the offences and circumstances relied on in the forfeiture proceeding are substantively identical to the criminal proceedings and there is no prejudice to the Commissioner arising from a delay to the forfeiture proceedings.
A plaintiff suffers hurt, embarrassment and reputational damage as a result of the defendant’s publications. Parts of those publications are clearly defamatory; other parts, although hurtful and damaging, are not. How are damages to be assessed?
On 17 April 2015, the New South Wales Court of Appeal handed down judgment in the 15 year legal battle of NSW v Shaw [2015] NSWCA 97 (NSW v Shaw), finding that there was no implied term of mutual trust and confidence in probationary employment contracts.
In Argos Pty Ltd v Corbell [2014] HCA 50, the High Court held that an applicant whose profitability would be affected by a decision had standing under the AD(JR) Act.
In a unanimous judgment, the High Court has held that the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995(NSW) (the Act) empowers the Registrars to register a person’s sex as “non-specific”.
In Australian Electoral Commission v Johnston [2014] HCA 5, the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, answered questions of law in a way which led to the election of WA Senators to the Commonwealth Parliament being declared void.
The High Court, by majority, upheld the validity of a statutory scheme for the forfeiture of property. The scheme provided that, on application by the DPP, the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory could declare a person who had been convicted of three or more drug related offences within a ten year period to be a “drug trafficker”, and consequent upon the declaration, all property owned, effectively controlled or given away by that person was forfeited to the Northern Territory.
The High Court held invalid recent changes to the NSW political donations and campaign expenditure laws. The laws would have prohibited donations to political parties by any person not on the electoral roll, and where an overall cap on campaign spending by political parties otherwise applied, would have deemed expenditure on a campaign by ‘affiliated organisations’ of a political party (eg, unions) as being expenditure by that political party.
Eugenia Levine – The Commonwealth of Australia v The Australian Capital Territory
The High Court explained the standard of reasons required where a Medical Panel gives its opinion on a medical question referred to it.